David Yates

The upcoming “Harry Potter” spinoff film “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” is going to be the first in a film trilogy, and more movies might be on the way. The movies will be directed by “Potter” veteran David Yates, who directed the latter four films in the eight-part franchise, and will reunite the filmmaking team of David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram, Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara said at Time Warner’s investors conference Wednesday. The “Fantastic Beasts” movies are based on an original story by “Potter” author J.K. Rowling and will mark her screenwriting debut. Release dates are slated for 2016, 2018, 2020 and perhaps beyond. “Jo has a vision for this extension of the franchise, and for the first time, she is writing the script for what she believes is at least a trilogy,” […]

No one sneers or snarls quite like Alan Rickman and, looking back on a cinematic decade of “Harry Potter,” his Severus Snape now stands as the franchise’s most fascinating figure after being revealed in the eighth film as misunderstood double-agent motivated by long-lost love. According to David Yates, the director of the final four “Potter” movies, there was a similar sort of aura around Rickman on the set when he wore the black robes and sour scowl of his character even when the cameras weren’t rolling. “My early reaction to Alan was, ‘Wow, he’s really prickly and quite unpleasant,'” Yates said during a recent Los Angeles visit. “But there’s a method to his madness. I realized that he has to get in that zone when he’s on the set. When I finally met him away from the job, he was […]

What do you do after the magic is gone? That’s the career question facing David Yates, the director who this year delivered his fourth “Harry Potter” film and watched it go on to $1.3 billion in worldwide box office along with the best reviews of the entire era-defining franchise. On Tuesday, sipping tea and sitting in the sun on the patio of a Los Angeles hotel, the soft-spoken 48-year-old said he was still trying to sort out his emotions as well as his ambitions, which include a “Doctor Who” feature film. “It’s so hard to contextualize. I’m not sure how I feel. I’ve gotten much more opportunity, I know that, but how do I feel? I feel … well, I’m still in recovery, frankly. I’m recovering from six and half years of incredibly intense schedules and expectations. I have post-Hogwarts Syndrome. We were joking […]

No other scene in the eight “Harry Potter” films created more angst for filmmakers than the epilogue of the final movie, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2,” a movie that last week crossed the $1 billion mark in worldwide box office. There were no chained dragons, hairy hippogriffs or crackling magic energies in the sequence — it’s a few minutes of quiet dialogue between parents and their children in a train station — but the anxiety of it all was so smothering that the franchise’s star, Daniel Radcliffe, at one point wanted to sit out the scene. “I think they should do it with older actors and just leave us out of the scene,” Radcliffe said two years ago during a quiet moment on the stone-floor movie set where he has spent half of his working life […]

Just like Severus Snape, Hugh Murray presented an ambiguous figure in the “Harry Potter” universe. In the end, would he be an unexpected hero — or just another 3-D bad guy? Hugh Murray, IMAX’s senior vice president of film production, performed his dark arts as the stereographer on “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2,” guiding and filtering the 3-D conversion process for director David Yates. The stakes for Murray and Yates were high; the finale film in the Warner Bros. eight-film adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s “Potter” epic was the first to be released fully in 3-D, and the demands of history — not to mention muggle fans all across the globe — put plenty of pressure on the team. “It’s always interesting and scary,” Murray said, “to wait and see what the world thinks.” The world seems pretty happy. The movie was released July […]

David Yates, the soft-spoken auteur who directed the final four films in the history-making “Harry Potter” franchise, watched an early Imax screening of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2″ with 340 lucky Hero Complex readers and then took the stage to talk about the new movie and (dab those Muggle tears) the end of a magical movie era. We’ll be bringing you video highlights from the Q&A in upcoming days (you can see the first one right here, the very interesting second installment right here, part three right here and the fourth one over here). In the video below, Yates talks about the colossal achievement of casting the franchise’s three young stars and a bit about their personalities. In today’s installment: Yates talks about J.K. Rowling’s genius and screenwriter Steve Klove’s intense challenge. To find out about all of the upcoming free Imax movie […]

David Yates, the soft-spoken auteur who directed the final four films in the history-making franchise, watched an early Imax screening of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2″ with 340 lucky Hero Complex readers and then took the stage to talk about the new movie and (dab those Muggle tears) the end of a magical movie era, including his special regard for a particular cast member. We’ll be bringing you video highlights from the Q&A in upcoming days (you can see the first one right here, the very interesting second installment right here and part three right here). In the video below Yates talks about the colossal achievement of casting the franchise’s three young stars and a bit about their personalities. To find out about all of the upcoming free Imax movie previews in Southern California, follow us on Twitter: @LATherocomplex — Geoff Boucher […]

David Yates, the soft-spoken auteur who directed the final four films in the history-making franchise, watched an early Imax screening of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2″ with 340 lucky Hero Complex readers and then took the stage to talk about the new movie and (dab those Muggle tears) the end of a magical movie era. We’ll be bringing you video highlights from the Q&A in upcoming days (you can see the first one right here and the very interesting second installment right here). To find out about all of the upcoming free Imax movie previews in Southern California, follow us on Twitter: @LATherocomplex –Geoff Boucher RECENT AND RELATED Photos: Daniel Radcliffe’s decade as Harry potter Photos: Hermione Granger through the years Photos: Ron Weasley through the years Photos: Hogwarts professors and first-class actors Photos: The ultimate ‘Deathly Hallows’ gallery ‘Harry Potter’ app: Find […]

David Yates, the soft-spoken auteur who directed the final four films in the history-making franchise, watched an early Imax screening of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2″ with 340 lucky Hero Complex readers and then took the stage to talk about the new movie and (dab those Muggle tears) the end of a magical movie era. We’ll be bringing you video highlights from the Q&A in upcoming days (you can see the first one right here) and below is one that will be of particular interest to Snape fans. To find out about all of the upcoming free Imax movie previews in Southern California, follow us on Twitter: @LATherocomplex –Geoff Boucher RECENT AND RELATED Photos: Daniel Radcliffe’s decade as Harry potter Photos: Hermione Granger through the years Photos: Ron Weasley through the years Photos: Hogwarts professors and first-class actors Photos: The […]

David Yates, the soft-spoken auteur who directed the final four films in the history-making franchise, watched an early Imax screening of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2” with 340 lucky Hero Complex readers and then took the stage to talk about the new movie and (dab those Muggle tears) the end of a magical movie era. We’ll be bringing you video highlights from the Q&A in upcoming days, the first is below. To find out about all of the upcoming free Imax movie previews in Southern California, follow us on Twitter: @LATherocomplex — Geoff Boucher RECENT AND RELATED Photos: Daniel Radcliffe’s decade as Harry potter Photos: Hermione Granger through the years Photos: Ron Weasley through the years Photos: Hogwarts professors and first-class actors Photos: The ultimate ‘Deathly Hallows’ gallery ‘Harry Potter’ app: Find your personal Patronus Hiss like Salazar with Parseltongue […]